Sampler Sunday

 No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth, 

I hit the wall so hard with Carmen that I seriously thought about retiring from stitching and letting my brain get sucked out by playing games on my phone.

I regained my sanity. I really love Carmen and I want to finish her, but I think I was putting too much pressure on myself to stitch her before the end of the year. I mean, really, other than having Carmen on my MAGIC list for the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild, I have no compelling reason to absolutely have to get 'er done. And I can just roll her over until next year's list, as far as that goes. 

(MAGIC stands for My Annual Good Intentions Contract. It's a way to get things done, and you can put up to five things on the list. I put four. I've done one. Pitiful, just pitiful.)

The last time I ht the wall this hard, I was working on Martha Edlin. I got over that wall by just working on Martha on Sundays until I got so close to a finish that I couldn't put her down. So, Carmen is now my Sampler Sunday project.

I have been working on some other things in the last couple of weeks.

The embroidery for the stitching roll for the Artisan's Workbox is done.

Now it's on to the finishing part--and I'm afraid I'm playing a little bit of thread chicken. Keep your fingers crossed that I have enough of the dark red silk to put this sucker together.

I've finished both panels of the Hapsburg Lace needle book. We're going to assemble this for our January EGA meeting, so it can go on the back burner for a bit.

And if you look very closely, you may see the beginning of a tree trunk on the front cover of No Place Like Home.

It has not escaped my notice that even my smalls are complicated and fiddly. That may account for how long it takes to get anything done.

There has also been some stash enhancement, but that can wait for another day.